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Mad About The House

The latest additions to Design Storey

Welcome to the new weekly drop on Design Storey, this week we are mainly focusing on bedrooms and workspaces with a little bit of outdoor living thrown in.   BRUTON DOUBLE DRAWER DESK, THE DORMY HOUSE We tend not to think of painted wooden desks but if yours is sharing space with a bedroom or
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New arrivals at Design Storey

Time for this week's newest additions to Design Storey Shop and this week there's a slight emphasis on outdoor living with a very comfortable chair and a pretty watering can but some good finds for indoors as well. First up: the chair: Shona chair, Made The key to garden furniture is making sure it’s as
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Monday Inspiration: Beautiful Rooms – Bathroom Special

This weekly collection of rooms has always been a fairly random collection of spaces that have caught my eye during the past seven days - sometimes I try and do a walk-through every room in a house (as it were) and sometimes, often, there are lots of of kitchens. This week, for some reason, I
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10 Best Desk Lamps

jielde desk lamps as seen at madaboutthehouse.com
Here, as part of the August updates is my round up of the 10 best desk lamps.  A desk lamp is not to be confused with a table lamp. Unless you want it to be and I have included a couple of table lights here as it doesn't always have to be an angled, articulate,
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New Season Paint Trends from Farrow & Ball

Today I am bringing you the first of two posts on paint. One is the new trend colours as identified by Farrow & Ball from their existing palette of 132 colours and next week we will look at their extensive range of neutrals and how to combine them to best effect. The talk was given
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10 Beautiful Rooms

designed by soren rose
green smoke by Farrow & Ball in this Phillippe Harden designed apartment via Remodelista When is a feature wall not a feature wall? When it's basically a giant alcove. Interior designers will tell you that the feature wall is over. That if you have chosen a colour or a wallpaper you should do the whole
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How To Plan Your Decorating Budget

navy blue and gold wallpaper set off this pendant light perfectly image by Karen Knox
I'm excited to bring you the first in a new series on The Mad House today. When I asked you what you wanted from the blog a few of you said that you would like to see other voices from time to time to bring a change of pace. I have already started with my
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Fired Earth Paint

Top Hat by Fired Earth Walls. We've all got 'em. We all spend quite a lot of time thinking about what colour to make them and quite  a lot of money procuring the paint to do it with. Now it would be wrong to say today's post is about a new kid on the block
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Mid Century Modern Armchair

H. Lis Fox Coffee Table As many of you will know, I'm a fan of the store Rose and Grey  which sells a mix of vintage and contemporary furniture and accessories. They recently opened a shop in Altrincham, which just proves it's not all Londoncentric and today I wanted to show you their new chairs
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Interview: Winner of The Great Interior Design Challenge

Some of you will have dropped in today to read an interview with Daniela Tasca York, the winner of BBC 2's The Great Interior Design Challenge. Some of you will have no idea who she is, won't have seen the programme and won't really care less. Which is why you should know that this isn't
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10 Beautiful Rooms

vintage eames chairs photo by Dana van Leeuwen
studio flat via alexanderwhite.se photo by henrik nero Hello and welcome to this week's round up of 10 Beautiful Rooms. Starting off with this studio flat in Sweden which just shows what you can do with a small space. Admittedly, it's full of fabulous windows, but the owners have had to contend with a sloping
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The Househunter: Real Rooms

For today's Real Rooms analysis we are off to West London to this five bedroom house which wass on the market for a shade under £3m via Domus Nova (since I wrote this - yesterday - it is no longer available but this site is rammed with gorgeous luxury property so do visit if you want
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Pretty Serving Platter in Grey and Gold

vodina platter from anthropologie Now I don't know about you, but I'm not averse to watching the odd cookery programme. God knows I love to eat and I definitely love to know where the next meal is coming from. But I do often find when watching the likes of Nigella and Nigel, Jamie and Hugh,
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Leaning Coat and Shoe Rack

leaning clothes and shoe storage from future and found
leaning clothes and shoe storage from future and found Today's post comes to you from the school of Things I Have Learnt Since Having Children. That is to say boys. That is to say, in particular my youngest. Who is well messy. Yes I know, tell you something you don't know. They are also, and
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Small Metal Armchair

metal chair from rockett st george
metal chair from rockett st george Isn't this a sweet little chair? And you know what's good about it - it's only 55cm deep which means it won't take up too much room. It's the perfect occasional chair - you don't want to spend the evening in it watching telly but for a cup of
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10 Beautiful Rooms

via alexanderwhite.se
STYLING- PELLA HEDEBY PHOTO- RAGMAR ÓMARSSON via elledecoration.se Aaaand it's Monday again. Comes round fast doesn't it? I was drawn to this inside out picture this week. The soft greys framed by the black frames and the olive tree living in the bedroom rather than on the deck. Given that I have now finished painting
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The Househunter

Hello everyone and welcome to Friday's Househunting Room Analysis post. Last week, I tried giving you a little more detail as to why I thought certain rooms worked and others didn't and, judging by the comments, you seemed to like it so let's do it again this week! What you liked, which I must confess
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Colourblock Vases

January. The s0-called Dry month when you're not supposed to drink, or eat or shop. Or anything that helps those long dark days pass. Hang that I say. On the other hand we're all so broke that it's not really a good time to be splashing the cash. But sometimes you just want a little
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Deep Pile Rugs from Alternative Flooring

barefoot ashtanga silk rug from alternative flooring
Just before Christmas, as some of you may know from my constant complaining at the time, I was ill with some hideous cold virus that really knocked me for six. One day as I was lying - Victorian heroine-like on the chaise longue - the phone rang. It was a young man called Alistair or
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Guest Post: Daniel Hopwood Presenter of The Great Interior Design Challenge

Now over the Christmas break, some of you suggested that I could hand over the keys of The Mad House to someone else occasionally. For a change of pace. And I thought that was a good idea but who? Who would I trust with the keys? Someone with expertise clearly. Someone who knows stuff. Someone...
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